Share the Love

About a month or so ago I was having a bad day. Well, more like a bad week. It just seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Phone problems, computer problems, death, illness, and generally just feeling alone and utterly friendless in a foreign country in a foreign language. So one Friday while walking in tears towards the phone store I prayed, "God, I just need some encouragement today. Can you please just send somebody to encourage me?"

The phone store only had more bad news for me - obviously that wasn't it.

So I went where I always go when I need a pick-me-up: Starbucks.

Every Starbucks in the world is the same, so no matter where you are, it always feels like home. The music, the sofas, the over-priced menu, the hunter green...

It was about lunch time so I got a delicious sandwich and sat down to read while I passed the time before class. But by the time I needed to leave I was hungry again, so I decided to buy a muffin to eat on the way to class. There were two guys behind the counter, neither of whom I had ever really talked other than to order a drink. As I counted the money for my muffin, one of the guys said something to the other guy, who then handed me my money back and said (in English), "try not to make it look obvious." I stared at him in utter confusion. What?? Then the other guy said "te lo compro" - "I'm buying it for you." I smiled and said thank you, and then went on my with a bounce in my step, smiling the whole way to the metro station. God had answered my prayer.

So today, about a month later, I went to meet a friend at the same Starbucks. I hadn't seen the guy but once or twice since that day and of course, didn't have a chance to say anything to him. After all, we've never even really spoken.

As I was waiting for my friend he was cleaning up around the condiment bar, so he came over and started chatting with me just like we were old friends. So I told him, "remember that day when you gave me the muffin?" He smiled and nodded. I said, "You have no idea what you did for me that day," and began to tell him the story of how I had been having an awful week and had been crying that morning and asked God for somebody to encourage me, and he was the answer to my prayer.

So then he started crying! Of course he was embarrassed, crying with someone who is practically a stranger, in the middle of Starbucks while he's supposed to be getting the trash and his co-workers are all looking on like "what the..?" We laughed and continued chatting until the line got too long and he had to go back to foaming milk and pushing the magic espresso button, but, as corny as it sounds, I feel like we shared something special today. Goodness, I feel so 1990 family TV programming Bob Saget saying that, but it's true.

So we're pretty much BFF now.

How does this apply to you? Go do something nice today - some random act of kindness. And then go tell somebody "thank you." You never know what it might do for them.

LB